It was a privilege to join Labour Coast and Country recently to talk about how Labour can rebuild support in towns, rural areas, and coastal communities. Currently, the electoral map shows England as a sea of blue, with small clusters of red in and around our cities. Our road to power must encompass towns and…
The current pandemic has affected people’s lives and livelihoods in a way that, rare for a natural disaster in this country, has been felt in every part of the UK. Having experienced the horrors of Foot and Mouth Disease at the turn of the millennium, rural communities have seen something similar to the current lockdown…
I have spent decades arguing the case for better investment by the government into our rural areas. Here are my thoughts on this subject in the current climate. I readily accept that there is significant inter-dependence between urban and rural areas and that the City of London, and Northern Powerhouse are obviously major contributors to…
The recent publication of the Lords Inquiry into the rural economy (explored here by Baroness Young) reinforces the need for a Rural Strategy as proposed by the Rural Services Network, its partner organisations and many others, including LCC. As we often find many MPs and political leaders are surprised to find that more people live in rural England than live in Greater London…
Rural economies are not just like urban ones but with less people and more cows, they are distinctive, providing not just livelihoods for rural dwellers but increasingly locations for business start-ups, often digitally enabled. The countryside and its landscapes and wildlife is one of England’s greatest assets and many people choose to live in rural…
As a One Nation Labour Party we need to expand our horizons beyond haphazard thinking on rural issues in order to secure a sustainable economy for Britain’s countryside and reach out to the rural electorate. What must be recognised is that rural areas are subject to an intrinsic ‘separation’, a root cause of so many…
The Government recently announced the launch of a £168 million ‘Pothole Fund’ which will provide councils with funds to address the UK’s deteriorating roads. While investment in infrastructure is always welcome this figure is far outweighed by the savage cuts that have had to have been forced on highways maintenance budgets. The LGA labelled this…
